Guelph-Eramosa Township is giving the Concerned Residents Coalition (CRC) $70,000 to fight a proposed quarry near Rockwood at the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) hearing this fall.
However, council also decided the township itself is not going to be a party at the OMB hearing.
Instead, the municipality is sending its lawyer to file an exhibit at the hearing – in the form of a resolution stating the township’s objection to the quarry and asking the OMB to reject James Dick Construction Ltd.’s rezoning application and Aggregate Resources Act (ARA) license application.
“I think one of the obvious questions people are going to ask is ‘if the township’s opposed to the ‘hidden quarry’ why aren’t they going to fight it at the hearing?’” councillor Mark Bouwmeester said at a special meeting on June 27.
“In order to be at the hearing we would be required to provide evidence that would argue against what our peer review team, which is a group of respected professionals that work for us, has just said is okay.”
Bouwmeester explained that would mean firing the township’s consultants and finding contrary evidence to support council’s decision.
“Firing consultants until you find one that agrees with you would be inappropriate and irresponsible,” he said. “As well the applicant has already formally advised us the last time they were here at council that they would likely call our own peer review team as witnesses at the hearing to argue against the municipality.
“Even if we did find new consultants and tried to find new expert witnesses it would cost the township several hundreds of thousands of dollars before the hearing even took place.”
The decision on the zoning bylaw amendment was taken out of the municipality’s hands when James Dick Construction filed an appeal to the OMB in June 2015.
The quarry process began in December of 2012 when JDCL applied for a rezoning amendment for lands southeast of Rockwood – from agriculture and hazard land to extractive industrial – to make way for a quarry.
In October council made a unanimous decision to advise the OMB that it opposed the hidden quarry application as it stood at the time, despite the report from township planning consultant Elizabeth Howson of Macaulay Shiomi Howson Ltd. recommending council advise the OMB to approve the quarry application in-principle, subject to specific conditions being met.
At the June 27 special meeting, council came out of a closed session with a resolution restating its objection to the quarry but also including caveats suggesting what should be done if the quarry is approved, including:
– approval of the township’s zoning bylaw amendment as drafted by the township solicitor and consultants;
– approval of the township’s conditions of development; and
– a request that the final order on the appeal and referral not be issued until a satisfactory road agreement is entered between James Dick Construction and the township and a permit from the Ministry of Transportation for the truck traffic is received.
Council directed the township solicitor to attend the OMB hearing beginning Sept. 27 to provide the resolution and associated documents to be filed as an exhibit.
At the same special meeting, council chose to give the CRC $70,000 from the Rockwood Hyrdo Fund with the idea that it would help to pay for two of the group’s four expert witnesses.
“I think it’s absolutely critical the community have a voice at the OMB,” Mayor Chris White said.
“I think we’ve heard enough in the last three and a half years from the folks, they want to be there and I think we have an obligation to help them get there.
“This amount of money, it helps.”
Instead of using money from general taxation to fulfill the CRC request for funding, council chose to take it from the Rockwood Hydro Fund as Rockwood residents are the most impacted.
“That’s what this money is for,” White said. “This money is intended for the benefit of the people in Rockwood and it seems to me the impact is greatest there.”
The OMB hearing starts Sept. 27 at 10:30am at the Guelph-Eramosa office.
